Children Of Hades
by TreasureDimond
Summary: This is a story about 2 children of Hades. A story filled with Captures, and Betrayals. Please Read and Review!. Im not that good at summaries so. . . . .
1. Chapter 1 Kathryn

**Children of Hades**

By: Sophie Levy

_**Chapter One –**_

_**Kathryn**_

_Kathryn McCauley had no idea that she was a demigod, a child of the god Hades. Kathryn thought that she was a normal girl, but one who could see ghosts. She had been able to see ghosts since she had been about two years old. The god of the Underworld, the Leader of the Dead, had sought out his children and chosen the two who had the most potential, when properly trained. These two were Hades' only hope to gain power by overthrowing Olympus._

There, at the grand, old carnival booth stood a dark and mysterious man. He had grotesque features, which was appropriate, considering that he was one of Hades' controlled Simacruli.1 Hades had shown him a picture of a teenaged girl and given him a Task2.

"Seek this girl and bring her to me. If, by some impossible means, you fail to accomplish this Task, kill the girl to keep the other gods from using her against me," he had instructed the Simacruli, sneering at him.

How he despised Hades! The infernal god had brought him to life to serve his one Task, with no reward except to die again once his Task was over. But, a Simacruli can not turn against the one who brought him to life. Simacruli also only have one purpose once they are animated, which is to do the Task his (or her) master is assigned him to do. Then he would become a corpse again.

_"Oh well,"_ he thought, _"I'll try to make it quick."_

Kathryn looked at the strange man, who was smoking a cigar and leering at her, and was unsure of what to do.

_"I'll just walk away,"_ she decided.

She started to do so. Kathryn was a couple of blocks away when she realized that she was not alone on the street. It was late, and there were rarely people walking around here so late, which was why she was doing so, to get away from the hordes of people that were always on the main street. But then Kathryn heard footsteps, then a crash. She whipped around, took one look at the man following her and started to run. Her heart was pounding in her chest. Kathryn turned a corner and hit a dead end. She started to scramble up the wall, but was dragged down by a cold, claylike hand. She shivered. The hand had felt almost . . . dead. Kathryn kicked at the hand and it released her. She looked around for something to fight with and found nothing. She checked in a box and found a stash of broken, empty beer bottles. Kathryn heard heavy breathing and a cloth covered her mouth. She drew in a breath to scream and darkness swamped her mind.


	2. Chapter 2 Seph

_**Chapter two –**_

_**Seph**_

_Seph Firesword was an orphan. He was told that his parents died in a car crash, but he has known for a few years that that is not true. There are no records. Unknown to him, he is a demigod, a child of Hades. Seph has been trying to find his parents, or records of them, since he figured out that they had not died in a car crash. He would do almost anything to find out information about them. _

Seph left the party to go to the old abandoned warehouse he has called home since he ran away from his lying, sniveling foster parents. It was almost midnight and he was watching television on a stolen set that he had managed to make work, when he heard a soft, almost hesitant knock on the door. The door looked, on the outside, like old wood with peeling paint, but, on the inside, was solid stone. Seph contemplated whether he should open the door or not and had decided not to when the knocking got more insistent. He hauled himself out of the chair and slowly sauntered up to the door, knowing that taking a while to open the door earned you more respect than rushing to open the door. Impatient people were also more likely to agree to a better deal than patient people and keeping people waiting at the door was a good way to make them impatient.

Once he had checked his peepholes and confirmed that the misshapen man standing at his door had only a knife in the way of weapons, and he could deal with a knife easily enough (he always carried at least two), he opened the door.

"You needed me for something?" Seph asked, making sure that he sounded arrogant and that his voice conveyed the message – You had better need me for something or else.

"I have the information that a Seph McCauley lives here. Is that correct?" the stranger responded, matching Seph's arrogance word for word.

"I have some information about your family. Would you like to acquire this information?"

"I might be interested." Seph said, trying to retain his composure. He was having some trouble though, because he was bursting with questions.

"I thought you might be," the man replied, and grabbed Seph's arm. The man was strong and, even though Seph dug in his heels and tried to pull away, the stranger managed to drag Seph outside before Seph twisted and freed himself. Seph didn't think he would need it, but pulled out a knife, just to be on the safe side. The man reached out and placed two fingers on each side of Seph's elbow. The stranger squeezed sharply and Seph's entire arm went numb, causing him to drop the knife.

"If I yell, fifty people will come to help me," Seph snapped sharply.

"But you won't, not if you want to ever see your family," the man said, still eerily calm. "And you will come with me." Seph had to know about his family and decided, in a split second, that he would go with the man. After all, the man didn't know about his other two knives. He could use those if necessary.

"And give me your other two knives," the man boomed.

Seph was astounded! How did the man know about the other knives? But Seph had to comply, handing over his knives meekly. The dark man dragged him through a maze of alleyways in to a dark dead end. There was a spilled stash of broken, empty beer bottles.

"Relax and breathe," instructed the man, as a shadow detached itself from the wall and dropped down in front of him.

"Hello Sssseph," the shadow hissed.

"Wha–" But that was as far as he got. The shadowy figure leaned forward, so its (or her or his) face was right in front of Seph's.

"Good night," it hissed, and breathed black smoke into his face. The growing darkness smothered his vision and he slowly sunk into unconsciousness. Right before Seph was completely unconscious, he felt a sharp pain down his side. His chest hurt in a line across his chest that felt like there was a cut going down to his heart. There was also the incredible pain in his arm, maybe it was broken.

"I told you not to harm him! Hades needs him!" the man was yelling.

"Sssssorry," the shadow hissed "But he will heal" And that was all Seph heard before he fell into unconsciousness.


	3. Chapter 3 Healing

_**Chapter three –**_

_**Healing**_

Kathryn walked back to her little room and collapsed on to one of the two beds. Why were there two beds, if she was the only one there? And why were they forcing her to take medicinal and healing classes? She had always seen ghosts, but this was ridiculous! There were hundreds! Why, she wondered, did she have to befriend this boy, Seph? He already sounded whiny, just the kind of boy she hated.

Argus1, her faithful servant, who served her as a bodyguard from avenging spirits, and a butler, knocked politely and entered.

"I have your lunch, Miss Kathryn," Argus said respectfully.

"Thank you Argus," Kathryn said, without sounding very thankful. "Put it on the table"

"Of course Miss, whatever you say," Argus replied, with the humility she required of everyone who attended to her, excepting Hades, though he did not serve her.

"Go away now,"

"Yes Miss" Argus said. He bowed and left quickly.

A few minutes later, an Orc2 burst through the door and woke Kathryn up from a sound nap.

"How dare you!" She yelled at the Orc. Should she torch him or just singe him? She decided to compromise.

"Tell the others to knock before they came in," she said, and sent a sharp blast of fire from the tips or her fingers to scorch his legs.

"Now," Kathryn said, her voice like ice, "You can leave" The Orc shrieked and ran out the door. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

"Please don't let it be another Orc; I hate them," she muttered, and said loudly "Enter." Argus slipped in and closed the door behind him.

"Miss Kathryn," he said "Our hunters have brought the boy, Seph. He is here now and is injured. On the Master's orders, you are to care for and befriend him. Turn him to our side if possible. You are to also asses his powers and the strength of them."

"That's all?" Kathryn said sarcastically.

"That's all." Argus said, completely unaware of the sarcasm in Kathryn's voice.

"Fine. Bring him in," she ordered. Argus went to the door while Kathryn averted her eyes as he reverted to his true, ethereal form. She knew that he would mind-speak to the hunters, whoever, or whatever, they were to tell them to bring Seph here. When the hunters arrived, Kathryn saw that they were three reincarnations of the original Sekhmet3. The reincarnations had the heads o lionesses and the body of a female human, but several times larger, they were worshiped in Egypt as gods. The original Sekhmet was the goddess of felines, but these were only shadows of their previous self. In their arms was a boy.

"This is Seph?" Kathryn asked them. The reincarnations grunted. She decided to take this as a yes.

"Put him on the bed so I can take a look at him, and then leave to bring me supplies. From the look of him, he'll need everything I can get. Go!" Kathryn said sharply. The reincarnations obeyed. They had to, for she had used Persuasion4 on them. Not too much, because using Persuasion was tiring and reincarnations had very little will of their own.

Kathryn shut the door behind them. Once that was done, she took a look at her patient. Seph's eyes were open and staring. He had a look of pure terror plastered on his face.

"From the look of him, the idiots probably got a Drevak Demon 5to knock him unconscious to they could bring him here," Kathryn muttered under her breath as she examined the boy. _He was actually quite handsome, _she thought,_ with his glossy black hair and gray-green eyes. He had an angular face with high cheekbones. He looked about 14, the same age as she was. No, no, no, no. _Kathryn scoldedherself sharply;_ she could not allow herself to like him._ She was only becoming his friend to convince him.

Kathryn heard a knock on the door.

"Enter," she said, thinking that it had better be the medicines and other supplies or she would probably be mad enough to scorch something. Argus entered, hauling a cart behind him. He pulled the cart in to the room and Kathryn saw that it was loaded to overflowing with medicines and any other supplies that she could possibly need.

"You did well Argus. You can leave now." Kathryn said formally and, for the first time, thankfully. Argus bowed and left, leaving her alone with Joseph and a huge cart of supplies.

Kathryn pulled off Seph's shirt and saw immediately that he had one very dangerous cut that could easily to kill him very quickly. It was a very deep cut that went diagonally across his chest. That one needed to be healed first when she actually started to heal him. But before she got to that, his other cuts had to be assessed. Kathryn took a second look at his chest and abdomen and saw that there was a smaller and shallower cut on his side. Seph also had a broken arm.

Kathryn went to the supplies and found the list that was always added by Argus when she ordered more than two items. Let's see, she thought, I need bandages, lots of them, and a Demonic Magic Amplifier6. Kathryn scanned the list. Holy Water, Chakra Magical Amplifier, Lightworker7 Magical Amplifier. Why would she need a Lightworker Amplifier? She would not even be able to touch it without being incinerated . . . . Aha! Demonic Magic Amplifier – section 2A. Kathryn reached into section 2A and grabbed a heavy, thick circle covered in aluminum foil. She pulled it out. Now for bandages. Kathryn went down the list again. Sage and Lavender Smudge Stick, Turquoise healing infuser, and . . . . Bandages – section 8C. She reached in and grabbed as many bandages as she could before running back to the bed with the Amplifier and the bandages.

Kathryn unwrapped the Amplifier and placed it on Seph's chest, right over the cut. She placed the bandages next to her as she sat next to him on the bed. Kathryn put her hands on the Amplifier as it sat on Joseph's chest. She started to meditate and fell into her magic. Kathryn went deeper and deeper inside of herself as she looked for her magic, and there it was! A seed of magical fire. She grabbed the end of it and tugged sharply. A thin coil of fire came to rest in her palm. Kathryn pulled harder and the coil thickened as she called for more than she ever had before. She took it and let it flow out through her palms and plunged it into Seph's chest. Then, as the flow of fire began to wane, she ran around the bed to his shoulders. Kathryn clamped her hands on to his shoulders. His back arched and she hung on to his shoulders to weigh him down as he twisted. Kathryn was able to hang on to his shoulders only because she had been trained and knew that healing had this affect on most people, so she was ready for it. _So that was why Hades had forced her to learn how to heal,_ Kathryn thought.

Once Seph's eyes had closed and he had settled, she released his shoulders and got the bandages. Kathryn inspected her work, carefully examining Seph's injuries. The chest cut had gotten shallower, but was still bleeding heavily, and the cut on his side had started to scab over, but was leaking blood. Once that was done, she wrapped his torso in bandages. Then she staggered over to the other bed to sleep.

When Kathryn woke up, after three days, she was ravenous. She stumbled, bleary-eyed, to the dining table to find that Argus had thoughtfully laid out food for her. Kathryn didn't even think about using utensils, she was so hungry. Kathryn looked at the food, grabbed a bagel that was already smeared with cream cheese and stuffed it in her mouth.

"Hey, can I get some of that?" a voice asked. Kathryn whirled around. Seph was still lying on the bed, but his eyes were open.

"Why are you awake?" she said, surprised. How strong was this boy? It usually took at least a week for regular people to recover enough from a healing to wake up, and a few more days for them to be able to speak. The stronger ones took a week to be able to speak. And this kid was speaking three days after the healing?

1 Argus – a humanoid creature and has eyes all over his body.

2 Orc – a large green-black goblin with four arms and is very good with swords and in battle, hates anything supernatural. Orcs do not consider themselves supernatural.

3 Sekhmet – an animal with the body of an unnatural

4 Persuasion – the art of suggestion; called magic by some.

5 Drevak Demon – a small, black, shadowy demon that has long tentacles.

6 Demon Magic Amplifier – a flat, round obsidian disk that amplifies demon or demonic magic. Can kill Lightworkers. (see Lightworker)

7 Lightworker – a person or thing that is gifted with magic to be used only for good. For people who can see magic, she (he, it) is surrounded by a soft golden glow.


	4. Chapter 4 Dreams

_**Chapter Four –**_

_**Dreams**_

While he was unconscious, Seph was having flashbacks to his early life. They would hit him, and with every one, a new wave of pain, emotional and physical, came over him. And here was one now. . . .

Seph shrieked silently as the flashback came on. The pain was almost too much for his injured body to bear. Then he spun through time to the day he first saw the Dragon Warrior1. Seph was thirteen years old at the time. . . .

Seph walked down the street and started to talk to a bunch of his friends. Everyone thought that it was so cool that he was adopted, so Seph was the leader of the bunch. Today was the day of the field trip. Everyone was so excited! The school had donated $10,000 to the National Museum of Greek Mythology and the museum had given them tickets to take all of the 7th graders to see the museum's new exhibit. Seph and his friends were herded into the bus by the teachers. Seph slid into his usual seat at the back of the bus. His best friend, who was becoming more then just a friend, slid in the seat next to him. Her name was Gazelle Longbranch.

"Hey Seph," she said, openly flirting with him, and snuggled up against his side. Seph didn't really mind, so he didn't push her away like she usually did. Gazelle obviously took this as a sign of encouragement and snuggled closer. She gazed upward at the same second as he was looking down at her. She lifted her chin slightly, so that her lips were just inches from his. Seph bent down and gently pressed his lips against hers. Immediately, he felt her heart go wild underneath his hand. Seph heard footsteps and jerked his head up. Gazelle looked at him, confusion written across her face.

"Relax," he whispered "Someone's coming, but just relax and sit on the seat next to me." Seph saw her eyes go wide as she sat bolt upright next to him. _Oh great, _he thought, _there is no possible way we are going to pull this off. _Seph turned to the isle of the bus and saw Mr. Turner, the super strict math teacher doing his rounds on the bus. Seph groaned. _Aw, crap. Why did it have to be this teacher who was doing the rounds? Why couldn't it be that nice English teacher, Mr. Bass? _Mr. Turner walked down the isle calling out to make sure that everyone was sitting down and stopped next to them.

"Hello Seph, Gazelle," the teacher said menacingly. "Having fun?" Mr. Turner said this in such a way that Seph got the feeling that he somehow knew exactly what had been going on.

Seph sneaked a look at Gazelle and saw that she was trembling. Gazelle was obviously trying not to show it, but wasn't succeeding. _So that's how he knows._

"Yes Mr. Turner," Seph said smoothly. _Time to change the subject. _At least he had practiced this part. "We were just talking about how much fun you make math." Immediately Mr. Turner blushed and started to talk about something that had to do with geometry or algebra. The math teacher was still standing in the isle. The bus screeched to a stop and poor Mr. Turner went flying to the front of the bus. The bus had arrived at the National Museum of Greek Mythology.

Once the teachers had managed to get everyone off the bus with no one being trampled, the 7th graders went into the museum. Right in the middle of the lobby was the new exhibit. And in the middle of the new exhibit was an incredible painting. There was a huge Ancient Greek dragon on it. The dragon's intricate tail was coiled around the Washington Monument, while the weight of the beast was crushing most of the flags surrounding the monument. The dragon's wings were flared and the fire was spurting from the huge mouth with marble colored teeth. The dragon had beautiful, intelligent, eyes that looked as if they had been carved out of jade that were set on a surprisingly delicate head, and shimmering, interlocking, crimson scales. She was entrancing. Somehow, he just knew that the dragon was female. Seph couldn't look away from her. But then the unimaginable happened.

The dragon tore itself from the painting and, while there was still a copy of it on the painting, the dragon's scales on the painting had lost their sheen and the jade eyes had lost their intelligence. But the dragon standing in front of Seph was the same as Seph had first seen her. She stretched her wings and yawned, expelling a cloud of surprisingly sweet-smelling (but boiling hot) breath. She stared at Seph with those hypnotizing jade colored eyes. Seph looked away as fast as possible.

"I have been waiting forrrr you forrrr a hundrrred yearsssss," The dragon hissed, rolling out her r's forked tongue flicking in and out. "And only now you come to me, Sssseph?"

Seph screamed and lunged away from the dragon.

"Seph," Gazelle called "what's the matter?"

"The dragon's alive!" Seph screamed. Gazelle looked at him, and started to back away, looking at him with pity. The dragon started to walk toward him in her smooth, long strides. He ran out the door, hearing one of the teachers say sadly, "we knew that this was possible, we just didn't think it would happen so soon." Seph was still half paralyzed by the dragon's stare, and that forced him to run in an odd, loping jog, even though he was trying to run. He heard footsteps behind him and felt a needle pierce his bicep. Then all he knew was the shadowy world of unwilling sleep.

Seph was dragged into his past for the second time. He whimpered, not able to get enough breath to scream.

Seph jogged easily on the boardwalk. He started to get a little out of breath, but kept pushing himself like he always did. It had been about four in the morning when Seph had left the house and Seph always jogged for as long as he could before he had to stop, because the longer that Seph was out of the house, the less time his horrid foster parents had to yell at him. For what felt like the thousandth time, Seph wondered why his true parents had let these people baby-sit him when he was two, and then went missing. Seph had been told that his parents had died in a freak accident while hunting lions on Africa, but he didn't quite believe that. He felt a thick liquid at the back of his throat. Seph stumbled to a stop, chest heaving as he fought to breathe through the mucus blocking his breath. He cursed silently. He had overreached himself again.

Seph silently closed the door behind him and pushed the bolt into place. He pulled off his running shoes without taking the time to untie them and tiptoed to the stairs. Seph was about to start climbing up the stairs when he remembered that the first, third, fifth, seventh, and eighth steps creaked when you stepped on them. Seph carefully drew his foot back from mid-step and hopped lightly to the second step, then the fourth and lost his balance. Seph staggered and got his balance only after he had slipped down three stairs. _Hopefully they didn't hear that. _Seph took a step up on to the sixth step, then the eighth. The step creaked and groaned loudly. Seph groaned. _Good luck not having them hear that._ He hurried up the rest of the steps and hauled his tired legs down the hall and into his little room. The door slammed shut behind him, pushed by the wind that he had stirred up as he was running down the hall. The door slammed open, but this time it was not caused by wind, but was caused by his fourth foster father, Paul, bursting into his room.

"Kid! You are in so much trouble!" Paul yelled.

Seph decided to venture a question. "Are you going to yell for Mary?" His foster father stepped over the threshold.

"No," he said, quietly and dangerously, "I'm not going to call Mary." Seph breathed a sigh of relief that came all too soon.

"No," said Paul, "I want you all to myself this time. Natalie is sweet, but too nice to you." Seph struggled to hold in a fit of nervous laughter. _Natalie? Nice? I don't think so. _Now Seph went through his music library in his head. It was the only was to keep his foster father's words from hurting him. Seph put on his best anti-hurt armor and switched off to be alone with his thoughts during the hard lecture and possible beating that would surely come.

"Are you listening to me?" Seph was jolted out of his thoughts by a bellow from his foster father.

"I know that you've been sneaking out every morning," his foster father snarled at Seph. Seph could smell the alcohol on his foster father's breath. _Crap_. Seph cursed under his breath as he realized that his foster father was drunk. His worst beatings always came when one or both of his parents were drunk.

"And I'm going to take care of this right now!" his foster father said, his voice going up, as it always did when he was completely wasted. Seph knew that he had only seconds before his foster father hit him when his foster father started to advance towards him, hand raised.

"This will teach you not to sneak out without my permission!" his foster father shrieked, his alcohol-reddened eyes rolling wildly in his head. His foster father swiped at him but Seph jerked back out of the way. Seph tripped over his mattress and fell over backwards. His foster father staggered towards him again and Seph put his hands out in front of him as a meager protection from his foster father. The hit landed squarely on his forearm. Seph could feel all of the anger towards all of his foster parents, suppressed for so long; start to stir deep inside his mind.

Seph got up and as his foster father approached and raised his hand once again, Seph, in a desperate attempt to stop his foster father, raised his hands. Seph's karate instructor always said, "Push or strike with your mind as well as your body." And Seph did. He closed his eyes and visualized his foster father flying backwards into a wall. Seph opened his eyes and saw his foster father hit the window, reddened eyes wide, and burst through with a crash and a shower of shattered glass.

There was a scream, a thump, then silence. Seph slowly walked over to the window, looked out of the shattered window at the ground and saw his foster father lying bloody and broken. His foster father's head was twisted at an angle that made Seph sure that Seph had broken his foster father's neck or worse. Seph felt a bubble of remorse about what he had done come up. He shoved it back down savagely. What had happened was what his foster father deserved for what he had done to Seph. He spat and walked away. It was only once he was out of the house that he began to think about what he had done. Seph liked to read about telekinesis and telepathy, the powers of moving things with your mind and reading minds, and he thought back to everything he had read.

Seph silently screamed as the third flashback in as many days came over him. Wham! Suddenly he was in his house, back when he had a house, if you could call it that, and didn't live in the warehouse, right before he ran away.

"You useless boy," his fifth foster 'father' was yelling, "I told you to clean your room, not shove it all in a closet! No T.V. for a week. A month! A year!"

"You will go to your room and stay there until tomorrow morning," snarled his fifth foster 'mother' "or later, if I decide to keep you there for longer." She waved a hand at Seph, dismissing him from her presence.

"Well, go on!" Seph went. He was too scared not to obey, for the fear of being beaten or starved in to obedience. Seph went straight to his stash of food that he had squirreled away for when this type of thing happened. Seph checked it and saw that there was only a loaf of bread, some chocolate, and some fruit. He pulled out an apple and had started to eat it when he heard steps coming up the stairs. Thud, thud, thud. He had learned from experience that his foster mother's steps sounded like a boom, while his foster father thudded up the stairs. Seph whipped around and had started to shove his apple back into his hiding spot, but before he could, the door flew open.

"What are you doing!?" demanded his foster father.

"Mary, dear, come here and see what this brat of ours has been doing," he called out the door. Seph heard the booming of his foster mother coming up the steps. In a split second, Seph made the decision that would change his life forever. He snatched his food, lunged desperately past his foster father and ran by his foster mother on the stairs. Seph ran through the kitchen, grabbing whatever food he could.

"Mary! Get him!" Seph heard his foster father yell.

"What?" his foster mother responded.

"I said, get him!" his foster father screamed.

"Huh?" Seph could hear that his foster mother was completely confused by what his foster father was yelling. _It was a good thing for him that him foster mother was half deaf, _Seph thought. He opened the door and started to run again. He turned around and . . . Wham!

1 Dragon Warrior – an elite warrior, the best of the best, takes the form of a dragon when he or she dies and becomes the personal protector of one person of his or her choice.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter Five –**_

_**Recovery**_

Seph slammed back into a conscious state and saw a girl, maybe fourteen years old, standing by a small table. She was eating a bagel smeared with cream cheese. Once he saw the food, Seph realized that he was dying of hunger.

"Hey, can I get some of that?" Seph croaked. He realized how stupid he must sound and flushed.

"Why are you awake?" the girl snapped, obviously surprised and not looking at all happy that he was awake. Seph looked at her, one eyebrow raised. _Like he would know why he was awake? He didn't even know _if_ he would wake up, let alone _when_ he would wake up. _The girl picked up some food and brought it over to Seph.

"You're probably hungry," the girl remarked. _Hungry? That's an understatement. _"So here's some food, but make sure that you don't eat to fast. Your stomach isn't ready to have too much food yet." _Well too bad stomach, food's coming whether you are ready for it or not._ Seph grabbed the food that was offered and started to eat greedily. His mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton. Seph paused in his eating and managed to mumble around a mouthful of bagel and salmon flavored cream cheese "Can I get a drink?"

She stalked away without answering and went to the desk. The girl grabbed her cell phone and made a call. Almost immediately, a big, blond dude walked in. Seph jerked in surprise and almost dropped his food. _Oh my god! _Seph thought. _That man has eyes _everywhere! And it was true. The man _did_ have eyes all over his hands and face. He nodded at Seph once he had greeted to girl, addressing her as Kathryn. Seph, to his extreme embarrassment cowered away from him.

"His name is Argus" the girl muttered to Seph, elbowing him hard in the side. Not the girl, Seph berated himself, Kathryn. Her name is Kathryn.

"Hello Seph," was all Argus said. Then he turned to Seph's companion. "You are expected in the War Room for a meeting. The Master's order is that you bring the boy." Was it just Seph's imagination or was there another meaning behind those innocent words? Seph dismissed the idea. What danger could there possibly be here?

"Coming?" Seph looked up and saw Kathryn waiting for him, already halfway out the door. He hurried after her. Once in the hall, he saw that Argus had gone ahead. He and Kathryn rushed to catch up. He looked around eagerly, as this was his first time out of the room, and saw one of the big stained glass windows that lined the hall. Seph walked over to an open window.  
"I wouldn't –" But that was as far as Argus got before Seph stuck his head out. Argus, moving incredibly fast, grabbed the back of Seph's shirt and hauled him back into the hall. Less then half a second later, a burst of noxious smoke and blue-white fire shot past the window.

"Ewww! Wha was sat?" Seph asked, hand clamped firmly over his nose and mouth.

"It's called Azhi Drakahi." Kathryn said, perfectly calm, like this sort of thing happened every day. "The fumes are the most lethal nerve poison known and the fire is at about 1,500 degrees. If Argus hadn't pulled you back, you would have died."

Great. Just what he needed. A thousand year old monster who, if the myths were to be believed, should have never reached 5 decades.


End file.
